THE NATURALIST ON THE RIVER AMAZON. 



^members of the monkey order seemed rather 

 to court attention, but the Mycetes slunk 



; nway vhen any one approached it. When 

 it fiTst arrived, it occasionally made a gruff 

 subdued howling noise early in the morning. 

 The di'i-p volume of sound in the voice of the 



.howling rr.oiikeys, as is well known, is pro- 



duced 'by a di urn-shaped expansion of the 

 larynx. It was curious to watch the animal 

 while venting its hollow cavernous roar, and 

 observe how small was the muscular exertion 

 ?mpl jyt'd. When howlers are seen in the 

 ioiest, there are generally three or four of 

 them mounted on the topmost branches of a 

 tree. It does not appear that their harrow- 

 ing roar is emitted from sudden alarm; at 



! least, it was not so in captive individuals. 

 It is probable, however, that the noise serves 

 to intimidate their enemies. I did not meet 

 with the Mycetes stramineus in any other 

 part of the Amazons region ; in the neigh- 

 borhood of Para a reddish-colored species 

 prevails (M. Belzebuth) ; in the narrow chan- 

 nels near Breves I shot a large, entirely black 

 kind ; another yellow-handed species, accoid- 

 ing to the report of the natives, inhabits the 

 island of Macajo, which is probably the M. 

 fl ivimanus of Kuhl ; some distance up the 



' Tapajos the only howler found is a brownish 

 -black species; and on the Upper Amazons 

 the S3le species seen was the Mycetes ursinus, 

 whose fur is of a shining yellowish-red color. 

 In the dry forests of Villa Nova I saw a 

 rattlesnake for the first time. I was return- 

 ing home one day through a narrow alley, 

 when I heard a pattering noise close to me. 



.Hard by was a talm palm-tree, whose head 

 was heavily weighted with parasitic plants, 



; and I thought the noise was a warn in? that 

 it was about to fall. The wind lulled for a 

 few moments, and then there was no doubt 

 that the noise proceeded from the ground. 

 On turning my head in that direction, a sud- 



den plunge startled me, and a heavy gliding 

 motion betrayed a large serpent making off 



Almost from beneath my feet. The ground 

 is always so incumbered with rotting leaves 

 find branches that one only discovers snakes 

 when they are in the act of moving away. 



^ icsidentsof Villa Nova would not believe 



that I had seen a rattlesnake in their neigli- 

 boihood ; in fact, it is not known to occur in 

 the forests at all, its place being the open 

 -C!mpos, where, near Santa rem, I killed sever- 

 ~nl. On my second visit to Villa Nova 1 saw 

 nnother. I had then a favorite little dog, 

 named Diamante, who used to accompany 

 me in my iambics. One day he rushed into 

 the thicket, and made a dead set at a large 

 snake, whose head I saw raised above the 

 hei bagc. The foolish little brute approached 

 quite cluse. and then the serpent reared its 

 tail slightly in a horizontal position and 

 -shook its terrible rattle. it was many 

 minutes before I could get the dog away ; 

 and this incident, as well as the one already 

 related, shows how slow the reptile is to 

 make the fatal spring. 



I was much annoyed, and at the same time 

 aamused, with the Urubu vultures. The Por- 



tuguese call them coryos or crow*- In cdlor 

 and general appearance they somewhat re- 

 semble rooks, but they are much larger, and 

 have naked, black, wrinkled skin about their 

 face and throat. They assemble in great 

 numbers in the villages about the end of the 

 wet season, and are then ravenous with hun- 

 ger. My cook could not leave the open 

 kitchen at the back of the house for a mo- 

 ment, while the dinner was cooking, on ac 

 count of their thievish propensities. Some 

 of them were always loitering about, watch 

 ing their opportunity, and the instant the 

 kitchen was left unguaided the bold ma- 

 rauders marched in and lifted the lids of thti 

 saucepans with their beaks to rob them of 

 their contents. The boys of the village lie 

 in wait and shoot them with bow and arrow ; 

 and vultures have consequently acquired such 

 a dread of these weapons that they may be 

 often kept off by hanging a bow from the 

 rafters of the kitchen. As the dry season 

 advances the hosts of Urubus follow the 

 fishermen to the lakes, where they gorge 

 themselves with the offal of the fisheries. 

 Toward February they return to the villages, 

 and Mre then not nearly so ravenons as before 

 their summer trips. 



The insects of Villa Nova are, to a great 

 extent, the same as those of Santarem and the 

 Tiipajos. A few species o" all orderg, how- 

 ever, are found here, which occurred no. 

 where else on the Amazons, besides several 

 others which are propeily considered local 

 varieties or races of others found at Para, on 

 the northern shore of the Amazons, or in 

 other parts of tropical America. The 

 Hymenoptera were especially numerous, as 

 they always are in districts which possess a 

 sandy soil ; but the many interesting facts 

 Which 1 gleaned relative to their habits will 

 be more conveniently introduced when I treat 

 of the same or similar species found in the 

 localities above named. In the broad alleys 

 of the forest several species of Morpho were 

 common. One of these is a sister form to 

 the Morpho Hecuba, which I have mentioned 

 as occurring at Obydos. The Villa Nova 

 kind differs from Hecuba sufficiently to be 

 considered a distinct species, and has been 

 described under the name of M. Cisseis ; but 

 it is clearly only a local variety of it, the 

 range of the two being limited by the barrier 

 of the broad Amazons. It is a grand sight 

 to see these colossal butterflies by twos and 

 threes floating at a great height in the still 

 air of a tropical morning. They flap their 

 wings only at long intervals, for I have no- 

 ticed them to sail a very considerable distanoe 

 Without a stroke. Their wing-muscles, and 

 the thorax to which tlM?.y are attached, are 

 very feeble in camys.riiJaa with the wide ex- 

 tent and weight of the wings ; but the huge 

 expanse of these members doubtless assists 

 the insects in maintaining their aerial course. 

 Morphos are among the most conspicuous of 

 the insect denizens of tropical American for- 

 ests, and the broad glades of the Villa Nova 

 woods sc3tned especially suited to them, for 

 1 noticed T j ?re s ! * species. The largest spec*- 



